New York City joined 74 other localities in signing onto an amicus brief supporting Oregon’s case against the federal government for deploying the National Guard in Portland to control protests taking place there.
According to City Hall, the brief calls on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (which covers western states, including Oregon and California) to uphold a lower court’s ruling, issued on Sunday, barring the Trump administration from deploying troops to Portland. The federal district court is weighing the lower court’s ruling after the Trump administration appealed it.
The fate of the case could have a long-term impact on New York should Trump — who has previously deployed National Guard troops to Chicago and Los Angeles, purportedly to quell what he claimed were “violent” protests over his immigration crackdown — set his sights on sending troops to the Big Apple. Trump has signaled that New York could be in his crosshairs if the voters elect democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, the frontrunner in the mayoral election, on Nov. 4.
In the brief, the plaintiffs allege that the Trump administration’s move to federalize the National Guard “failed to meet statutory thresholds and trampled on the foundational principles forbidding Federal military involvement in civilian law enforcement.” It further describes the action as a”drastic measure” that is “baseless, arbitrary, and seemingly animated by pretext and misinformation.”
Mayor Adams, who has personally refrained from criticizing Trump and his administration, emphasized in a statement the need for localities to be able to handle law enforcement matters themselves.
“New York City is proud to — once again — partner with a multitude of localities to assert local control over our own domain: public safety,” Adams said. “Collaboration with state and federal law enforcement has always been a key part of our public safety strategy, but we do not need a deployment of the National Guard to our city.”
Unlike the Trump administration’s moves to send National Guard troops into Portland, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington DC, it has thus far refrained from doing the same in New York City.
Both Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul have made clear that they would not welcome the president sending federal troops into the five boroughs. Their respective strong working relationships with Trump may be what has kept him from taking the same action as he has in other Democratic-run cities around the country.
Hochul deployed 750 New York National Guard troops into the city subways last year to assist police in deterring crime. The deployment, at the time, was to assist NYPD bag check efforts at heavily trafficked areas. The governor sent in another 250 troops last December, mostly to reinforce a sense of safety.
The city’s top lawyer, Corporation Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant, offered a sharp statement charging that Trump’s National Guard deployment to American cities “can sow chaos … and should be a last resort, not a primary tactic.”
“As highlighted in this brief, the president is continuing to treat American cities as military ‘training grounds’ based on pretext and misinformation that is contrary to the facts on the ground,” Goode-Trufant said. “Federalizing and domestically deploying the National Guard can sow chaos in local communities and should be a last resort, not a primary tactic, reserved for exceedingly rare circumstances. The district court ruling enjoining the federal government should be upheld.”
